Exploring Hudson’s Agricultural Roots

July 24, 2015

Staff photo by Len Lathrop The hay bale in the air can be seen between Emery Nadeau and Colton Houle in the hay wagon.

Staff photo by Len Lathrop

by Len Lathrop

Most everyone from Hudson knows that our high school has a dairy farm program. Have you ever thought that it is a real farm, that proof could be seen on Friday night at about 7:30 p.m., as one of the steps of feeding your cattle was being accomplished on the Hills House fields? Farm manager Emery Nadeau with his sister, Elisabeth Houle, and his nephew, her son, Colton Houle, were baling hay.

Also at the Hills House was Shirley Nadeau, Emery and Elizabeth’s mom, who talked about how, with rain on the horizon for Saturday morning, it was important to get this second cutting from the fields into the barn.

As an old farm boy from Connecticut it was exciting to see how the new case baler had a kicker on it to launch the bales into the wagon that could be drawn by the same tractor that was pulling the baler. Prior to this one, tractor pulled the baler, and the bale fell to the ground to be collected by people walking by a wagon pulled by a second tractor.

Shirley pointed out that each hay wagon could hold 200 bales of hay, and, at the Alvirne farm, there was space to put three wagons inside before they were unloaded.